Eagles Fan in 'Skins Land

2002 Leonids, from Manassas Battlefield (the bright "star" near the meteor in the upper right is actually Jupiter)

The annual Leonid meteor shower peaks tomorrow morning (Sunday, Nov. 19) before dawn.  In a normal year like this one, the shower, formed from the orbiting debris leftover from Comet Tempel-Tuttle, yields at best only a dozen or so meteors per hour.  However, from 1998-2002, we were treated to a series of spectacular storm events (officially, 1,000+ meteors per hour) after the comet's last passage around the sun in 1998.  The greatest storm happened early on November 18, 2001, with thousands of meteors per hour reported around the world in two separate, but distinct peaks.  I drove all the way out to Manassas Battlefield very early that morning to watch it, and was joined by hundreds of others who parked up and down US-15, where the sky was dark and the police really didn't mind.  I remember at one point just before both dawn and fog took over seeing meteors seem to rain from the sky, about 3 to 6 per second with many fireballs for several minutes.  That's something I'll never forget.  The next year, I went back to Manassas, and while it was also a good show, it was not even close to a repeat performance of 2001.

Alas, we won't see another Leonid storm again in our lifetimes, as Jupiter will steer the comet and debris field clear of us.  But if somehow you're still around in the 2090s, watch the skies in mid-November!